Wineries
15
S O N OM A CO U N T Y Arrowood Winery Most of Arrowood’s wine is done in the Bordeaux style of France. 14347 Sonoma Hwy., Glen Ellen. Tasting room open daily, 10am–5pm. 707.935.2600.
Deerfield Ranch Winery (WC) The finest wine caves this side of the highway. Twenty-thousand-square-foot underground lair is perfect for keeping wine and wine tasters cool on a summer’s day. Watch for giraffes. 10200 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood. Daily 10:30am–4:30pm. Tasting fee $10-$15. 707.833.2270.
Hop Kiln Winery Both pleasant and rural, Hop Kiln has an extremely popular crisp white wine (Thousand Flowers) which sells out every year. The grounds are gorgeous, right on the Russian River. 6050 Westside Road, Healdsburg. Open daily, 10am–5pm. 707.433.6491.
Kamen Estate Wines Key lines from screenwriter Robert Kamen’s features are available on T-shirts, packaged in film cans. Cabernet Sauvignon with intense red fruit flavor over inky tannins. Insert chase scene, destination: 111-B E. Napa St., Sonoma. Monday–Thursday, noon–6pm; Friday–Sunday, 11am–6pm. Tasting fees, $20 and $35. 707.938.7292.
Murphy-Goode Winery Value is a premium. Be sure to try the Brenda Block Cabernet and Fume Blanc. The new tasting room is a classy, low-key experience. 20 Matheson St., Healdsburg. Open daily, 10:30am–5:30pm. 800.499.7644.
Paul Mathew Vineyards Sunny, corner tasting room in downtown Graton offering a singular expression of Valdiguié, progressively deeper and more aromatic Pinot Noir, and cushioned benches to sink into should you become lost in
reverie as a result. 9060 Graton Road, Graton. Thursday– Sunday, 10:30am–4:30pm. Tasting fee, $10. 707.865.2505.
Red Car Wine Co. Lay some track to the “Gateway to Graton” and take your palate on a ride with Boxcar Syrah and Trolley Pinot from Sonoma Coast vineyards. Next stop: Côte-Rôtie on the way to Beaune. 8400 Graton Road, Sebastopol. Open daily, 10am-5pm. Tasting fee $10. 707.829.8500.
N A PA CO U N T Y Acacia Vineyard Acclaimed Pinot and Chardonnay; their biggest client is Costco, but the tasting room is a hole-in-the-wall in a drab beige facility. 2750 Las Amigas Road, Napa. Monday through Saturday, 10am–4pm; Sunday, noon–4pm. $15. 707.226.9991.
Beringer Vineyards (WC) This historic winery offers some seven daily tours for nominal fees, most of which end gratefully with a glass and a spin through the underground wine-aging tunnels. Open daily, 10am–6pm (summer hours). 2000 Main St., Napa. 707.963.7115.
Chateau Boswell Winery (WC) This small, boutique winery is open by appointment only, selling most its wine directly via post to club members. 3468 Silverado Trail, Napa. 707.963.5472.
Darioush Exotic locale, with giant columns and a Persian theme, Darioush is justly famous for its Bordeaux. 4240 Silverado Trail, Napa. Open daily, 10:30am–5pm. 707.257.2345. Hall Winery (WC) Craig and Kathryn Hall specialize in “beefy” wines favored by Robert Parker. Intensely modern art and all things Austrian. 401 St. Helena Hwy. S., St. Helena. Open daily, 10am– 5:30pm. 866.667.HALL..
Peju Province Vineyards Talented staff, terrific food pairings and fantastic Cab. 8466 St. Helena Hwy., Rutherford. Open daily, 10am–6pm. 707.963.3600.
Silver Oak Silver Oak truly is a venerable cult wine, confounding to outsiders who don’t feel the magic. Folks love the Silver Oak; the Silver Oak is good. 915 Oakville Cross Road, Oakville. Monday– Saturday, 9am–5pm; Sunday, 11am–5pm. Tasting fee, $20. 707.942.7022
Swanson Vineyards Not lotus-eating, per se, but caviar, Grana Padano, artisan chocolate bonbons–same idea. Whimsically elegant Salon or informal, candystriped Sip Shoppe. Known for Merlot. 1271 Manley Lane, Rutherford. Sip Shoppe Thursday–Sunday 11am–5pm; call or ring gate. Fee $15–$20. Salon by appointment, $60. 707.754.4018.
Trahan Winery In the fancy heart of downtown Napa, a low-budget “cellar” where wines are shelved, with clever economy, in stacks of wood pallets; vibes are laid-back and real. Carneros Chardonnay and fruity but firm and focused Cab and Merlot from Suisin Valley, Napa’s much less popular stepsister to the east. 974 Franklin St., Napa. Open daily, noon–5:30pm. Tasting fee, $15. 707.257.7477. V. Sattui Though a regular stop on the tourist circuit, it remains charming in the Italian style. With no distribution except via the Net, wines can only be purchased onsite. 1111 White Lane, St. Helena. Open daily, 9am–6pm. 707.963.7774.
Velo Vino Napa Valley Cycling-themed bungalow is filled with enough gear to outfit a peloton, plus wine and espresso, too. Tastings include spiced nuts and dried cherries, but sample-sized Clif and Luna Bars are readily available for your impromptu energy bar and wine pairings. 709 Main St., St. Helena. Daily, 10am– 6pm. $10–$25. 707.968.0625.
Magic Flute Live by the sword, drink by the sword at Sigh Sonoma BY JAMES KNIGHT
N
apoleon’s light cavalry, in the early 1800s, were constantly on the move and had no time to sit around in wine lounges and gently twist the cork off a bottle of Champagne, eliciting the proper “sigh.” Whether celebrating victory or commiserating in defeat, they employed a fast, effective, if dicey-looking method of opening those very necessary bottles of Champagne: sabering.
Two hundred years after the French emperor’s armies were defeated by a plucky coalition of oligarchs, Sigh Sonoma owner Jayme Powers steps into a winetasting-room-choked alley off the Plaza with bottle and saber in hand. Key points in sabering, she says, are a dull saber, a cold bottle and a strike on the seam. Slice, crack, pow! Neat trick. No reason to fear shards of glass in a pour of crisp and toasty Veuve Fourny and Fils Blanc de Blancs ($62; glass, $16; taste, $6), says Powers—the physics of bottle pressure took care of that. A job at Schramsberg Vineyards spurred the Sonoma native’s interest in sparkling wine and Champagne. “A lot of people don’t know that Champagne is a region,” says Powers, who offers a bit of education with flights. By popular demand, she started a small wine club. Instead of carrying the big names, she looks for Champagnes from smaller labels and growers that cannot be found in other stores. The spot’s popular with winemakers; largebowled stemware is kept in reserve for serious aroma sniffers. Indeed, while the Iron Horse Wedding Cuvée ($38) is as elegant and austere as usual, with ghostly traces of grapefruit and strawberry under a veil of scoury mousse, the star sippers are Champagnes. A whiff of the Michel Forget Ludes Brut Rosé ($64) conjures a vision of strawberry shortcake, which vanishes just as fast on the firm, dry finish. Nine years on the lees has aged the 2002 LeLarge Pugeot ($72) like pungent cheese rind, while the palate is still fresh with fermenting white grapes and rich with toasted almond flavor. Tuesday evenings during the Valley of the Moon Certified Farmers’ Market on the Plaza, two bottles of cold bubbly “to go” cost just $29—darn near charity. During the week, locals have discovered this is a quiet place to have a business meeting; weekends bring in bachelorettes, honeymooning couples and wine country daytrippers. For the odd guy out who simply can’t abide sipping fizzy wine from a flute, an hour spent lounging on cushioned benches and goldtasseled pillows needn’t be his Waterloo. Sigh Sonoma’s “42” license allows them to serve Miller High Life, the “Champagne of Beers.” Sigh Sonoma, 29 East Napa St., Sonoma. Summer hours: noon– 7pm; noon–8pm, Friday–Saturday, noon–8pm; Sunday, noon–6pm. 707.996.2444.
NORTH BAY BOHEMIAN | APRIL 23-29, 2014 | BOHEMIAN.COM
Most reviews by James Knight. Note: Those listings marked ‘WC’ denote wineries with caves. These wineries are usually only open to the public by appointment. Wineries in these listings appear on a rotating basis.